WILL WOEFULLY WRONG ON BUDGET AMENDMENT

Defending the proposed balanced budget amendment, columnist George Will argues that the escape hatch provided therein for crisis situations (three-fifths of the votes in each house) constitutes an adequate safeguard because he cannot perceive a "crisis" that 41 percent of each house would think nonexistent.

Will forgets his history. The Selective Service System was preserved in 1940 by a single vote in the House of Representatives. Imagine the debacle that would have resulted but for the bare majority who foresaw the military crisis - and contemplate the corollary, the nearly 50 percent whose lack of the necessary perception would have had us engaged in a massive two-front war not only with a devastated navy but with the dimmest prospect for building an army.

Given the vagaries of politics, the national safety should not be hostage to political whim. We should not be satisfied with the mere expectation that our representatives will always recognize the dangers ahead. And while we cannot hope to erect absolute safeguards, we should eschew clearly avoidable difficulties like the Trojan horse of a constitutional three-fifths majority. IRVING M. HERMAN